The Tyranny of Unrighteousness

The Tyranny of Unrighteousness

Some discouraging judicial decisions have been handed down in the past two days. Their implications will be better known in days to come. To say the least it has given many Christian people cause to evaluate the state of affairs in our nation and in the broader world context. First, are we at a time unlike any other in human history? I think not. Are we seeing the flowering of a pernicious ideology? I think yes. Is there a solution? Yes, indeed.
Looking at the situation and studying these occasions has led me to the conclusion that the situation we now face is not the result of anything other than growing unrighteousness. Some would sarcastically reply, “No kidding!” But I think the reasoning behind my conclusion is more important than the conclusion because it is in the reasoning that a solution can be developed.
I should begin by saying I think the Christian community has been fighting results and outcomes on the political spectrum while our enemy has been poisoning our water supply. DOMA, for instance, was a legislative attempt to curb a mounting attack from gay activists. We passed DOMA and then continued to remain blind and disengaged from the battle for our children’s minds. We didn’t begin training our children in the reasons for biblical marriage. So, while we celebrated a legislative “victory” our opponents implanted a new set of delusions into our children. That is one example among hundreds to be named, but the point is that the ideas in the culture belong to our opponents. We take the short view and they take the long view. We put our finger in the dam and they dig a trench around the dam. We have learned to be innocent but failed to be shrewd.
Unrighteousness is not simply immoral actions though all immoral actions are unrighteous. Unrighteousness also applies to structures that are out of order. The first symptom of growing unrighteousness is not necessarily crass and overt wickedness. The first symptom emerges when individuals exhibit failing judgment. We lose common sense in a culture. Laws multiply to stem the tide of foolishness that in the past had been considered obviously wrong. Bureaucracy thrives and government swells as the unrighteousness of people demands greater interference from the government just to maintain order. As social order at the basic level of family comes apart, the people call upon the government to mediate human relationships. The people both love and hate this new, empowered government. They love it because it grants them some promise of order and what stands in as justice. They hate it because they are demeaned by their failure to order their own lives. They hate government because they know they need it to be their nanny.
Unrighteousness leads to tyranny not just because of its lack of order, however. The worst threat from growing unrighteousness is the mental darkness it brings. Christianity demands thinking people. In fact, Christian faith does not rest on blind truths but on believing the witness of another person. Christian faith requires that a person think about the facts of the faith and then render a decision as to their merits. It is this reason that caused Christian faith to produce great thinking societies. Our government did not come from faithless renegades but from people with the fundamental spiritual equipment to interpret the reality of this world. Societies thrive when Christian faith inhabits the people of that society. Muslim societies are not just or noble. Buddhist societies do not exalt individual liberty. They are neither just nor liberated because they quell individual liberty. Christian faith creates individual liberty because it imposes on individuals what we call common sense. Our faith produces order because it demands its adherents to live ordered lives.
And their lies the secret to a solution for our day… Continued tomorrow